My Natural Environment 12 Days of Christmas - 2 Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Should our ‘True Love’ really be giving us these birds at Christmas?,??I don’t think so and I’ll tell you why.

Both the Grey Partridge (Perdix perdix) and Turtle Dove (Streptopelia turtur) are both listed as having ‘Red’ status on they Birds of Conservation Concern 5 List bocc-5-a5-4pp-single-pages.pdf (bto.org).?The ‘Red’ list identifies species that are of the greatest conservation concern in the UK, there are now 70 species on the Red list, more than there has ever been since the list started in 1996.?

Both the Grey Partridge and Turtle Dove were once more widespread across our farmed landscape and the Wild Bird Populations in thr UK report ?UK_Wild_birds_1970-2020_FINAL.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk) sets out more detail as follows:

• The UK population of Grey Partridge between 1970 and 2018 declined ?by 93%
• The UK population of Turtle Dove between 1970 and 2018 declined by 98%

Overall in that period populations of farmland birds in general (which in the past have typically been common and widespread) have declined by 57%.?Some explanation as to why such declines have occurred are found here Farmland Bird Declines | An Explanation - The RSPB.?

What can we do about this?

Though admittedly the West Midlands Combined Authority region is reported as being 70% urban and peri-urban we are still working hard with our partners to instigate positive changes to the green stuff.

Next year at the WMCA we shall be Responsible Authority for pulling together the Local Nature Recovery Strategy which will contribute to the delivery of the national Nature Recovery Network, we shall also be launching the West Midlands Forest Partnership and we shall be looking hard at options and mechanisms for establishing funding opportunities for private investment into the Natural Environment.?In the urban setting, which dominates our region, we shall be looking at how we can compensate for loss of brownfield sites (which can have significant ecological value) through the Biodiversity Net Gain system and?we will of course continue to make good progress with the #CommunityGreenGrant which is supporting the creation of and improvement to green spaces making them much more accessible to local communities (we have funded 13 such projects in our first year).

Given it is Christmas I shall end on a seasonal high.?Our favourite seasonal bird the Robin (Erithacus rubecula) has become much more abundant since 1970 (with an estimated 45% increase in its population) and there are an estimated ￡6.7m territories in the UK.???